Research On The Preparation Of Carbon Nanotube Composite Microbeads

In recent years,three-dimensional(3D)structures of carbon nanotube-based materials,such as arrays,foams,microspheres and spatial networks and so on,have attracted extensive attention.Among these structures,the research of spherical structure is most attractive.In this paper,homemade microfludic device and simple emulsion setup two ways were used to prepare carbon nanotube beads.In the preparation,carbon nanotubes(CNTs)with acidification and polystyrene(PS)microspheres served as raw material and template respectively,and appropriate amount of magnetic nanoparticles added into the composite solution endowed the beads with magnetic properties.Meanwhile,we have research the electrochemical properties of the carbon nanotube beads and applications for porous carbon nanotube beads in oil-water separation or adsorption for toxic organic agents.The detail works were summarized as the follows:1.A modified microfluidic device was designed to fabricate 3D carbon nanotube beads and porous carbon nanotube beads.In the droplet microfluidic process,different compositions of the dispersion affected the morphologies and structures of carbon nanotube beads.In addition,the content and sizes of templates had significant influence on adsorption ability of porous carbon nanotube beads.2.Porous carbon nanotube beads were fabricated via a simple emulsion-solvent evaporation process by using PS microspheres as hard template.The whole process is accompanied by continuous stirring and heating.The content and diameters of PS microspheres played an important role in the formation of porous structure and morphologies.3.Carbon nanotube beads were utilized to fabricate working electrode to test the electrochemical performance.4.Adsorption performance of porous carbon nanotube beads was tested to evaluate its practical value in oil-water separation or adsorption for different oils and organic solvents.